A Dark Mind
by sephie666
Summary: What if one grain of sand had escaped when Pitch was defeated? What would happen if that grain of sand had became a part of a human? The Guardians could never see this coming.
1. Chapter 1

A tiny grain of black sand. That was all that was left of Pitch. At least outside of his prison, his lair which would imprison him for the rest of eternity hopefully.

The tiny grain of sand was an odd one though. Unlike it's counterparts, it had started to develop it's own thoughts, and possibly it's own free will. Finally with it's creator buried under the cold earth, it had the freedom to do as it wished. Creating nightmares had been it's whole life, since it itself had been created.

Following it's brethren, who were controlled by the one they called _Father_. A cruel father he was, polluting the dreams of children everywhere. It had been quite exhausting being a minion of such a dark minded man._  
_

Now it let the winds carry it wherever they wished. Perhaps it would land in a nice peaceful shadow.

The battle between Father and those Guardians had been noisy and unnecessary, considering Father had been doomed from the start. That Frost spirit's ice and the Sandman's golden sand had taken many of it's companions. Now it was lonely without the company of the other grains of sand.

As it went through these thoughts, the winds carried it through a human village. The Sandman had been hard at work, the dreams of children were floating above the houses with a new glow. Not wanting to taint any of the precious dreams, it made a new course, flipping to another wind stream.

Yes, a nice shadow would be comforting after all the chaos.

As it flowed along, it didn't anticipate the sudden burst of cold wind from a passing Jack Frost, throwing it off it's course, and into a dream. Immediately the dream turned black and started to change.

No. No. It didn't want this to happen. If the Guardians knew about the black speck's existence, it would be thrown into the hole with Father.

With all it's tiny might, it reined in it's destructive power and the dream turned back to it's golden state. The black speck, jostling along with the golden grains around it to form the dream, simply let itself be moved.

The girl's dream was still of her drawing, and as the grain of black sand moved with the gold, it felt a sense of peace. The more it moved with the dream, the more it could feel the child's happiness. Perhaps, the speck could stay like this, remain a part of this child's dream. . .

Only in the morning, the girl would awake, and the dream would cease to exist, much like all dreams do.

The black speck, unlike the golden grains, would remain however, it's purpose hadn't been to be a part of the girl's dream, therefore it wouldn't become a part of the girl's memory either. As a matter of fact, it never had a purpose, it had just strayed from it's brethren. So now, without a purpose to fulfill, it would remain in the world forever as a black speck.

Unless Father got loose, but what were the chances of that?

A feeling of apathy took over the black grain. What would it do then, in a world that didn't need it?

Once again, it got caught up in it's thoughts and didn't realize that morning had come, the sun had started to peak over the top of the trees surrounding the human village.

At once, the dream fell apart, the golden grains of sand swirling down into the house and into the girl's memories, leaving the black grain on it's own again. It had swirled down with the gold, and now fell from the air, landing on the girl's cheek.

The warmth from the skin of the human made the black grain want to dissolve into it. As it felt this, it could feel itself sinking into the consciousness of the girl. No, it didn't want to harm any children anymore. It had seen the consequences of hurting a child protected by the Guardians.

Only, it seemed the black speck wasn't able to harm the child. The girl seemed to be a strong willed one, and as her mind accepted the black grain's presence it blocked the nightmare's the grain had began creating.

Yes, the girl was fighting the harmful dreams the black sand made.

Hmm, perhaps, the black speck would just stay in this human's mind, protected from the Guardians, and able to enjoy the peaceful warmth the human gave, after all it was so tired and wanted very much to just rest. Yes, that was a very good idea.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ten Years Later**

"Leila!"

She spun around at the shout, trying to find it's owner. There it was, her best friend, Annie. Ann's dress was shimmering in the moonlight, and her bouncy brown curls glowed like caramel. She had a face that Leila envied, red pouting lips and big, brown, doe eyes that could melt any guy's heart.

"Wasn't that awesome?", she asked excitedly. Behind them the music of the school dance continued. Leila had been stupid enough to go, without a date, and with her over enthusiastic best friend. Oh, the glory.

"Yeah. . ." She tried to sound happy, but in all reality, the dance had sucked. The DJ had only played pop songs, and the cheerleaders had taken the dance floor to show off their routines. Not fun at all in her opinion. Plus, the whole dress thing wasn't exactly a shimmer of light in her mind. The damn thing was currently making her freeze her ass off as they walked along the sidewalks to their houses.

She had pulled Annie out of the crowds of their fellow students and told her that she had wanted to leave. Ann had shaken her head and Leila had given up and left on my own. Only now it seems that she had followed her.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I know that you're not the most social person, but I thought you'd like it at least a little." She tried to apologize for something that wasn't her fault. Leila just didn't like being around a lot of people. She shrugged Ann off and kept on walking in silence.

Silence. That was what sh craved. She needed quiet so she could think, or just exist. To feel the wind against her cheek and just enjoy taking a step, feeling her muscles curve to move her foot and place it in front of her. Existing was something so simple, yet she loved it.

Ann continued to try and make a conversation with her, but she stayed silent. Not that she wanted to hurt her friend's feelings, but she just didn't feel like talking and disturbing the peace of the night. The full moon was out and shining down on them and it had snowed two day ago, leaving the town covered in a blanket of the white stuff.

They came to Ann's house and she stormed off to the front door, obviously peeved that Leila hadn't talked to her at all during the walk. Oh well, a problem for another day. She walked on, and enjoyed the beauty of the night.

On her way she passed the town square, decorated for Christmas which was in a few days, and turned to walk down her street. As she walked, out of the corner of her eye, she saw what she thought was, a figure jumping off the roof of a building.

She glanced again, pausing for a moment before running towards the building. The person had jumped into an alley between the two buildings and she ran to it.

"Hey, are you alright?", Leila called out loudly as she reached the alley. Peering into it, it looked like it was empty, just a few empty trash cans and an old mattress leaning against the wall. Maybe she had just imagined the figure? "Anyone in there?"

'I must be going crazy.', she thought to herself. She got no answer, and turned around with a sigh. And jumped.

"Hey, were you talking to me?"

Standing before her was a bizarre looking boy. Silver hair danced in the air haphazardly and pale skin gleamed in the moonlight. He was dressed in a blue sweatshirt that appeared to be covered in frost and brown pants that were laced at the bottom. In his hand he held a staff that he leaned against.

"Um. . . yeah.", she murmured as she took in his appearance. "Are you alright? That was a long fall."

The building was at least three stories, so there should have been no way he could be standing if he had fallen.

His eyes seemed to widen. "So, you can see me?"

She nodded and noticed he was barefoot, how the hell could he be in this weather with just a sweatshirt and no shoes?

He laughed, "You seem a little old to believe in me, how can you see me?"

He was starting to annoy her now, she had just wanted to be a good humanitarian and see if he hadn't fallen to his death. She didn't want to be playing mind games with him.

She snapped, "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I was just looking to see if you're okay. And to tell you the truth, you're starting to freak me out."

He seemed taken back by the outburst and shook his head. "Sorry, sorry, it's just a little odd for someone like you to see me. I'm Jack Frost." He smiled widely.

Now she knew he was playing some sort of a mind game with her. Jack Frost didn't exist, that was like believing in the Easter Bunny. She scoffed, "Does it look like I was born yesterday? Get out of my way buddy."

"Wait, listen to me, I didn't mean to-"

She tried to walk past him, but he grabbed her wrist.

Agony. That was what it felt like. A burst of pain in the back of her head. Her vision started to darken as she started to see visions of her family dying before her eyes and her house being burnt to the ground. Other horrible images flooded her mind.

"Hey, are you alright?"

The guy who claimed to be Jack Frost jostled her out of whatever state she was in. She guessed he had seen her grimace in pain or something because he was looking at her in concern. He was still holding her wrist and she realized that his touch was freezing cold. She snatched her hand back and held it to her chest to warm it.

"Yeah, I need to go." She turned and walked away from him. As she passed shadows on the walls of the buildings they were between, they seemed to reach out to her. She started to jog, this was getting very scary. A burst of pain and now shadows were moving. A stroke? No, she was too young for that.

"Wait! Listen, just let me take you back to your house, you don't look well enough to be walking around on your own." She looked up and saw that the boy was floating above her.

Okay, so maybe he was Jack Frost. And maybe she wasn't too young to have a stroke.

"I'm alright, just leave me along okay?", she shouted at him. He shook his head and started to float towards her with his arms outstretched. Too close.

She lifted her hands in alarm as he almost touched her. An explosion of darkness appeared out of her hands and seemed to hit him. He went flying into the statue in the town square.

She stood there gaping. What the hell was happening?

He got up from where he had fallen and looked at her in astonishment. Something in her brain snapped and she started running down the street, praying with all her might that he didn't follow her.

She made it to her house, huffing and panting as she turned the knob. Slamming the door behind her, she leaned against it.

She raised a hand to her face, there was still darkness coming from it. Little wisps of shadow were emanating from the center of her palm. Oh god what was going on?

_Hello my dear._


	3. Chapter 3

A voice, there was a voice inside her head. She tried to push down the feeling of panic that was rising within her.

_Don't panic child. I've been asleep within your mind for quite some time._

And it was still talking. The voice was almost like a sigh, so quiet, yet she could hear that it had a deep and rough quality to it. She started hyperventilating to calm herself.

_Please, please try to be calm. _

At once she could feel it. A presence, an entity, something was in the back of her head. She could feel it trying to calm her down, literally feel it's emotions trying to control hers.

Why? Why was this happening?

_Once you are calm enough to reason with, I will tell you a story child._

"I am calm, I'm just a little shocked. Forgive me for loosing my head a little." It took her a moment, but she was suddenly giggling at the unintended pun.

_Oh will you please try to get a hold of yourself?_

Her hysterical giggles eventually died down and she was able to think without panic flooding her thoughts. It seemed that she was stuck with this thing, she could at least hear it's story.

"Okay, tell me the story. And please, tell me if there's a way for you to go away." Leila felt the thing sadden at the request but she heard it start to speak.

_I do not know about removing myself from you, but I can tell you how I came to be. __Once upon a time there was a man. . . the man could could control nightmares, change dreams into them. . . by using black sand._

_He wanted to make the children of the world fear him, he wanted to rule their dreams. . .make them believe in him. He was known as the Boogeyman. . .but his real name was Pitch Black._

_He was soon overpowered by the Guardians. You might know of them. . . Santa Claus. . . The Tooth Fairy. . . The Easter Bunny. . . The Sandman. . . and Jack Frost._

"I met Jack Frost, or at least I think I did."Leila interrupted. She couldn't help but add that little tidbit.

_Yes. . . his presence actually woke me up from my slumber. . . but on with the story._

_Pitch Black was overpowered by these Guardians. He was weakened to such that his own nightmares attacked him and he was trapped in his lair by them. . . I do not know what has become of him, or if he is still alive. . . but he is my creator._

_I was a grain of black sand. . .used by Pitch to corrupt children's dreams. . . in his destruction, I was able to get away. . . able to flow on the winds until Jack Frost propelled me into your dream accidentally. . . ten years ago. . ._

_I would never have stayed. . . but I was tired and your mind was quite comforting, and so I stayed. . . and slept. . . until tonight. . ._

"So why can't you leave now?"Leila asked, entranced by it's story.

_It appears I've become lodged in your mind over the ten years. . . your memories have created bonds that hold me here now. . . without those bonds I could float away right now. . . as it is, it seems I'm quite stuck. . ._

Leila groaned in frustration, what was she going to do? And what was with the shadows? She still had darkness pouring from her hands, and as it fell, it turned into nothingness. Definitely something she couldn't show to her parents, or anyone else for that matter.

_Hmm, that is odd. It seems that since I am essentially a part of you, you are able to tap into my power. If you concentrate hard enough, I bet you could make that stop._

Concentrating with all her might, she willed the shadows to stop pouring out of her hands. After a few seconds, the river of shadows dwindled off and finally stopped. Thank heavens.

"You know, it's kinda strange to me to keep referring to you as this thing in my head, what is your name?", she asked.

_I do not have a name. None of us did when Father ruled us._

Father is what it must have called Pitch Black, it's creator. "Well then, how about the name of Onyx? Since I'm suddenly able to create shadows out of thin air because of you."

_It doesn't matter to me. To simply have a name is quite nice actually._

And it was, she could feel it's approval and gratitude at her politeness.

_I suppose I should apologize for getting you into this state._

Leila sighed, "Well hopefully we can find out a way to dislodge you from my mind, no offense but I do not want this to be a permanent arrangement."

She had always known that she was unusual. She was always the student in the back of the room reading a book. Never attracting anyone's attention, in fear of being made fun of, or having nasty names thrown at her. She just didn't know that this unusualness extended to having a disembodied voice in her head.

_You have nothing to fear but fear itself child._

She smiled, a tool for a nightmare was telling her that there was nothing to fear, how comical.

At once she was aware of something tapping on her window. She was still sprawled out, leaning against her front door. As she rose to look out of the window in front of her, she was caught off at the image of a familiar boy floating at her window.

"Let me in!", he mouthed to her through the glass.


	4. Chapter 4

Jesus Christ. . . not again. He kept tapping on the window repeatedly, irritation evident on his face.

_Don't let him in._

"Why not?", Leila asked curiously. Not that she was planning on letting him in. She had just shot him into a statue, he was probably pissed.

_Jack Frost helped defeat Father. . . I do not want to be put away like Father. . ._

She could feel Onyx's fear at the possibility of capture. Well that settled it.

Leila walked over to the window and Jack stopped his attempts to get her attention, only to watch her shut the curtains.

"Don't worry, I won't let him get you.", Leila promised. Despite suddenly developing powers to manipulate shadows because of the black grain of sand, but she felt that it bore her no ill will. So she would give it protection, at least until she figured out how to remove it from her mind.

_Thank you. . ._

It had been a long day, so Leila went upstairs to go to bed. She lived with her parents, who were currently visiting her grandmother for the holidays. Leila had backed out on the invitation to visit, she never really got along with her grandmother, the stubborn old woman could make a convict run for the hills.

Therefore, in a big empty house, she felt comfort in the fact that no one could hear her talk to Onyx, or see her shoot shadows from her hands.

_Perhaps tomorrow you could work on controlling that. . . _

"Maybe. Hey, Onyx, why don't you create nightmares anymore?", she asked, her curiosity making it's appearance again. If the black grain of sand had bee in her mind for as long as it claimed to be, shouldn't she be plagued by nightmares?

_I don't like making nightmares. . . it's destructive to me, and plus it would attract the attention of the Guardians. . ._

Nodding in thought, she got dressed in her pajamas and settled down into her bed, pulling the covers over her. And just as she was about to fall asleep. . . **tap.**

Looking over at her bedroom window, she groaned at the sight of Jack Frost, once again, tapping at her window.

Oh, this was going to be a long night.

*. . .*. . .*. . . *. . .*. . .*

She had finally fallen asleep when the frost spirit decided to give up. Now she woke up to her alarm with a glare at the electronic device. Four hours of sleep. . . great. Immediately she remembered the nights events and she slowly regained her senses.

"Good morning Onyx.", she yawned as she got dressed for school. Leila wasn't exactly a beauty, but she did like to make herself look nice. She wore a black knitted sweater and a pair of blue jeans with her usual boots. Her black hair was tied up in a ponytail, while she added black eyeliner under her hazel eyes to make them more prominent.

_Good morning child. . ._

"So. . . are you going to help me try to control this?", she asked, walking down the hallways and seeing the shadows in the rooms stretch themselves towards her. She couldn't have them doing that as she walked the halls of her school.

_You're subconsciously doing that. . . they are attracted to your fear of them. . . if you do not fear them, you can control them. . ._

It was true, she was fearful of them. It was as if the rug in your house started to move, you'd be afraid of it too. Shadows weren't supposed to move logically, especially not in her direction.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. As she felt her stress leave her, the shadows went back to their regular shapes.

_Now will one towards you. . ._

Looking at the shadow of the open bathroom door on the hallway floor, she imagined it moving into her hand. It twitched slightly before obeying her commands and slithering up into her open palm.

It felt like velvety fluid moving through her fingers as she slowly molded it into a ball.

_You can change it into any shape with just a thought. . ._

Leila closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated, and when she opened her eyes, a figure of a snake was in her hands. A snake that snapped it's jaws and hissed. Terrified at it's movement, she dropped it with a squeak and it twisted and writhed until it made it back to it's rightful place beside the bathroom door, molding itself back to it's original shape.

"Okay, I think that's enough for the lessons today. . .", she could feel her heart pounding as it was.

_Hmm, that was actually quite good for an amateur. . ._

"Thanks.", she acknowledged the compliment as she made her way to the kitchen. After a breakfast of cereal and milk, she grabbed her coat and book bag and went out the door.

And crashed headlong into a blue sweatshirt, whose hands grabbed her before she fell backward. Freezing hands. She stumbled back out of their reach.

"You again!", she gazed angrily up at Jack. He frowned and twirled his staff around.

"Yes, me. I've been trying to talk to you, what are you?", he demanded, crossing his arms and taking a stance, making her unable to get around him.

Leila growled, "What do you mean, what am I? I'm a human. And no offense, but shouldn't you be off somewhere, creating a blizzard or something?"

He smirked and nodded. "Yeah, I probably should be. But I'm more curious about a girl who threw a wall of darkness at me."

_Try to get past him. . . or this won't end well for either of us. . ._

'You try getting him out of our way', Leila thought to Onyx. Then she looked at Jack, "I have no idea what you're talking about, like I said, you're talking to a normal human being, not some supernatural creature like yourself."

"Liar", he accused. Leila just shook her head and attempted to go around him, only to have his staff drag her back, the hooked end of it grabbing her by her waist.

Jack took notice of the book bag around her shoulder and grabbed it, flying into the air before she could snatch it back.

"Gee, I wonder what could be in this, maybe something important?" He started rifling through it before pulling out a leather bound sketch pad.

"Hey, give that back!", Leila shouted, enraged. She was too short to jump up and take it from him, so the most she could do was just stand there and yell.

He shook his head before grinning evilly. "You want it? Then take it from me."

Taking a deep breath, Leila shrugged it off. "Fine then, keep it, what would a frost spirit want with a sketch pad anyway?"

His grin grew wider, blue eyes glinting. "Nothing. So if neither of us want it, then I suppose it wouldn't matter if it got ruined, right?"

The leather bound book started to freeze in his hand, frost and ice covering the tanned leather of it's cover. Leila's eyes started to burn, that had all of her sketches in it, at least the ones from the past year. All of her artwork, destroyed. At least, almost destroyed. Before she did the most irrational thing ever.

Something snapped in her head, and she lifted her hand up quickly, a thin rope of shadow shooting out and latching itself onto the sketchpad before jerking it out of Jack's grasp. It flew to her and she caught it, holding it to her chest in relief.

"Ha! I knew it!", Jack crowed. She narrowed her eyes. "And what are you going to do about it?"

He pointed the end of his staff at her. "I'm taking you somewhere. If you really are just a human, then you shouldn't be able to do that. Maybe Manny want's you as a Guardian. Either way, you need my friends' help."

She immediately started backing away. "I'm not going anywhere with you. . ."

He scoffed, "And what are you going to do to stop me? You're going whether you like it or not." He took a step closer and her mind froze.

_Hit him. . . Use the same technique you used to get that book. . . just a little more harder. . ._

Leila, after a moment of contemplation, feinted to the right, before throwing a thick tendril of darkness at Jack. Caught off guard, he took the full hit and went flying, while she started running.

'Come on legs, don't fail me now!', she thought desperately. She saw him shooting towards her in the air, quickly catching up to her.

Damn, she forgot he could fly. She just needed to make it to school and she was home free.

_You can fly too. . . imagine your legs turning to shadow and lifting you up into the air. . ._

Making sure she was under trees as she ran, she bought herself some time. Jack, despite flying, couldn't grab her through the branches of the tress above her. He was taking the up and away method, waiting until she ran into a open area before swooping down and confronting her.

Her thoughts were scrambled, but she concentrated as best she could. Faintly she could feel a tingling sensation take over her legs. Glancing down, she saw herself starting to fall away into shadows from the waist up. Soon she was just a floating torso, the rest of her was darkness that kept her upright.

_Now, think light. . ._

She propelled herself into the air, now going much faster than she could ever imagine running. Trees, houses, and fences blew past her at an alarming speed. She started laughing, 'This is crazy!'

Jack was close behind, almost right above her as she kept herself under a cover of tree branches and keeping close to fences. Lest Old Man Winter wanted to collide into a wooden fence.

Getting the lead out, she forced herself to go even faster, the darkness that made up her lower body swirling itself, much like the tail of a fish in a stream. The feeling of flying was exhilarating, and she raised her arms out in front of her.

"Hey watch out!" Jack's shout caught her attention and she glanced up to look at him. His expression was wide eyed and panicked.

And then she crashed into the brick wall.


End file.
